Why does God withhold good things from us, His children?

It's a perennial question older than Psalm 73, and it comes in today from an anonymous

woman who lives in Brooklyn.

Pastor John, hello, I'm a 26 year old Christian woman, been saved for nine years and am single.

I know the Bible says that no good thing does God withhold from those who walk up rightly,

Psalm 84-11.

But I feel like God is withholding marriage from me.

How do I fight for joy and keep my desire for marriage in proper perspective as I wait?

Well, since I wrote a whole book on how to fight for joy, even by that title, let me focus

on the second part of this question, which I really think is the main thing.

How do I keep my desire for marriage as a single person who would like to be married?

How do I keep my desire for marriage in proper perspective, because that will then turn

around and answer the other part.

And here's my answer, number one.

The desire for marriage is in proper perspective when it is a desire for marriage for Christ's

sake.

St. Augustine prayed, he loves the two little, oh God, who loves anything together with

thee, which he loves not for thy sake.

He knew from the Bible that it is not wrong to desire food or drink or clothes or friend

or knowledge or health or safety or marriage, not wrong to desire that.

And he wrestled with the question, when do these legitimate desires become sin?

And his answer was when they're not for Christ's sake.

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